#i didn't feel like hiyori was too reliant on lxl to solve her heroine love series issues though ?

[yume-fanfare]

yeah!

the idol series plotline was solved more or less well (personally i didnt like it at all everyone but hiyori was So Annoying to me) but because they had the novels to refer to

and the love series plotline was messy because like 85% of it was anime original

the asuka retcon was a mess because yeah, the point of her crush on asuka was that she projected her ideal prince dream on a random retail worker she met once, and the rejection was an important part to her development that she simply could not have in the anime. i don't think there was a way to have an asuka placeholder, really, introducing a new character for that would have been even worse if you look at the big picture. it is an interesting change to see hiyori doing the rejection rather than being rejected, and it has a completely different meaning than the original, but this is something that can be properly developed more in the mvs. it's just a completely different story.

the whole makeover bit in the anime also feels much different because. in the anime it happened because she felt like she wasn't cute enough because nagisa had judged her in the past ? and i do not like the sound of that at all

but in the end? i think it's not that deep, it's just the anime after all

let's see how it gets shown in the mvs because it can't exactly happen like that, and they did have some nice moments

and mona. she really was just there for viewer fanservice to make people go OMG MONA!!! and her character didn't have too much importance beyond being a cute cool girl. and yeah they could have made them to be closer friends but that would have been much more 100% anime original made up and? i do not trust them to write a good plotline about mona's issues on their own, and i don't think there was time to flesh her out more either. what did happen wasn't too good but a cheerful friendship between girls isn't too bad. if hiyori and mona ever become friends in the actual mv canon though, it'll probably be better than that

honestly, at some points the anime felt like episode 13 of an anime where they cameo a couple of characters that are too well-designed to be extras but that never get to have much spotlight because it is a tease on a future series. except that for now there is no future series so (shrugs)

tbh i understand that it's not like herotaru could've fully portrayed mona's depth as a character because it is not her anime. it's for hiyori and friends, and so far her and mona haven't actually even met in canon, she was mostly there as a treat to the viewers (and a Lot of people were happy to see her). maybe there were better ways of handling her, but there were other characters more important to hiyori's story that needed the development

all of the haniwa characters have their fleshed out stories but it is not always their moment to be told